I leave in pledge two silver wrist-bands. (In other words, the wrist-bands were put up as security for the debt.) Six miles north of Fonda is Johnstown (Pop. 10,908) where Sir William Johnson built his second residence (1762) now in the custody of the Johnstown Historical Society. It is a fine old baronial mansion. Sir William called this residence Johnson Hall and lived here with all the state of an English country gentleman. He devoted himself to colonizing his extensive lands and is said to have been the first to introduce sheep and pedigreed horses into the province. Sir William also built the Fulton County Court House with its jail (1772), used during the Revolutionary War as a civil and military prison. A free school, probably the first in N.Y. State, was established at Johnstown by Sir William Johnson in 1764 in his residence. In 1766 he organized a Masonic Lodge, one of the oldest in the U.S. In 1781, during the War of Independence, Col. Marinus Willett defeated here a force of British and Indians. The city is one of the principal glove making centers in the U.S. The total products are valued at about $3,000,000 annually. The manufacture of gloves in commercial quantities was introduced into the U.S. at Johnstown in 1809 by Talmadge Edwards, who was buried here in the Colonial Cemetery. [Illustration: Old Ft. Van Rensselaer at Canajoharie (Built 1749) This building had originally been the home of Martin Janse Van Alstyn, and was so well built that it had withstood the attacks of the Indians under Brant in 1780. It was therefore appropriated in 1781 by the American government, adopted as a fort, and placed under the control of Col. Marinus Willet, a competent officer chosen by Washington to handle the district in which Ft. Van Rensselaer and Ft. Plain were the military headquarters. (Still standing.)] 197 M. CANAJOHARIE (Palatine Bridge), Pop. 2,415. (Train 51 passes 12:40p; No. 3, 1:39p; No. 41, 5:55p; No. 25, 7:43p; No. 19, 10:20p. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 4:42a; No. 26, 5:45a; No. 16, 10:44a; No. 22 12:36p.) Passing the villages of Yosts and Sprakers we arrive in the town of Canajoharie, which in early days was the site of the upper Mohawk castle. The upper Mohawk castle, sometimes called Ft. Canajoharie, was described by an early writer as consisting of "a square of 4 bastions of upright pickets joined with lintels 15 ft. high and about 1 ft. square, with port-holes, and a stage all around to fire from. The fort was 100 paces on each side, had small cannon in its bastions, and houses to serve as a store and barracks. Five or 6 families of Mohawks reside outside the pickets. From Ft. Canajoharie to Ft. Hunter (the lower Mohawk castle) is about twelve league, with a good carriage road along the bank of the river."